When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#360 - Battle of Black Mountain (First Battle)

Standing on a black rock shaded by trees, Horn held a spyglass in his right hand, closed his left eye, and gazed at the chaotic formation not far away.

On both sides of the country road, the half-harvested wheat fields shimmered with a golden color.

The morning sun stretched the shadows of the messy crowd of people, extending from the soles of their feet to the raspberry bushes by the roadside.

The watch guards held their three-meter spears in the palms of their right hands, their left hands gripping the lower sections, the slender shafts of the spears protruding above their heads, as dense as a forest.

However, since the Salvation Army was quite far away, to ordinary war monks, these large formations looked like a giant, motley shoe brush moving forward.

Teams of knights in various colors, bearing various flags, were interspersed among them, like rags beside a shoe brush.

According to the battle procedure against regular troops, the knights would wait for the enemy's transcendents to appear or for the infantry to hold the line before launching an attack from the flanks.

Unlike the Edict Knights, who were willing and able to break through the enemy formation head-on, these country knights did not have the ability or courage to break through the enemy formation head-on.

The knights of Ibe verbally disparaged them as farmers, but when it came to life-and-death moments, their bodies honestly chose the regular army tactics.

Compared to the well-trained Salvation Army, this chaotic and rigid transformation was truly an eyesore.

If the two sides weren't so far apart, Horn would have had the urge to let the Holy Musket Cavalry go and slaughter them for a while.

According to reconnaissance and calculations, the battle on the plain in front of Black Mountain would most likely take place on this battlefield, which was 2,500 meters long and 1,000 meters wide.

The Salvation Army's eight legions and 5,400 cavalry were deploying along the ridge, with engineers running quickly between the teams, digging and setting up temporary fortifications.

The gentlest northwest side of the Black Mountain terrain was the right flank of Horn's position.

Horn deployed two mortar parapets here, 150 archers, and two Black Hat Legions, 1,000 men, under the unified command of Jeschka.

The right flank of the army was bordered by reed marshes and small woods of a tributary of the Ibe River, making it difficult for the cavalry to pick up speed.

As for the central army, Horn personally commanded a total of four legions, 2,000 men.

Two Guards Legions were deployed at a height of about 10 meters, and two Black Hat Legions were deployed about 200 meters in front of the Guards, at ground level.

The left flank was the steepest part of the ridge, where the Salvation Army deployed two Black Hat Legions commanded by Hakuto.

To the right of the two Guards Legions was the cavalry unit commanded by Jeanne.

The cavalry unit consisted of two parts: the first part was 250 horse archers composed of Norse Knights and some masked Kush Knights, and the second part was 300 Holy Musket Cavalry.

In front of the central Guards, four wizards, with the help of engineers, were nervously assembling fireball crossbows.

The legions commanded by Hakuto and Jeschka were basically parallel, about 90 meters to the left and right in front of the Guards.

According to the 'Holy Book of War Monks,' every two legions acted as a team, and the battle width of each legion was about 100 meters, so two legions were about 220 meters up and down.

Saying left, center, and right armies was actually just talking about the scope of command.

Unlike the Ibe knights, who moved forward separately to avoid interfering with each other, Horn's left, center, and right armies were connected.

Looking down from the air, it looked like a diamond shape.

Horn, who was observing the battlefield through the spyglass, suddenly wiped the lens in front of him with a handkerchief.

"What's wrong, Your Majesty?" Das stood under the large rock, looking up and asking.

Horn's facial muscles twitched, and he turned and handed the spyglass to Das: "See for yourself."

Just now, he clearly saw that those scattered hussars suddenly gathered together like duckweed.

The Ibe knights, who were originally on both sides of the central infantry formation, suddenly cheered and rushed out behind the hussars, regardless of the consequences.

You fell for such a crude lure tactic? You're inhuman!

"Ah?" At the same time, Das beside him made the sound Horn had expected.

"Prepare yourselves, let the Holy Muskets on both sides provide cover."

...

The sound of hooves rumbled, and the dish-shaped helmets in front of them kept shaking.

Although it was just the morning sun, Victor could still feel the iron helmet getting a little hot.

Heavy breathing and stifled prayers came from around him.

Although they had accumulated a lot of combat experience in the previous fortress advance battle, it was the first time for many recruits to fight knights in the wild.

"Spearmen, close in to the center!" Victor shouted the order according to the 'Holy Book'.

Fine footsteps stomped on the ground, and the spearmen began to close in to the center under the orders of the company commander and brigade commander, until they were almost shoulder to shoulder.

Putting on this formation meant that melee combat was about to begin.

"Front-row spearmen, lower your spears!" Victor could vaguely hear his old partner, Coleman, shouting orders next door.

He coughed and shouted the same order in a hoarse voice.

On his right, the spearmen in the first three rows lowered their raised spears in turn, changing to a diagonal forward position.

The morning light fell on the spear blades, stinging his eyes a little.

The people in the spear formation swallowed, making gurgling sounds in their throats. Because they were too close, they could smell the sweat coming from all around.

"Holy Musketeers..." Before Victor could finish speaking, several stray arrows flew over and stuck beside his feet.

There were also a few stray arrows that were soft and weak, and could not even pierce the clothes of the war monks, at most leaving a small blood spot.

Zelanken was quite clever. Seeing that he could not stop the knights' reckless charge, he ordered the archers to release arrows to cover them.

It was a pity that the range of the arrows was not enough, just making it impossible for the war monks to take the initiative to attack.

Victor steadied himself from the stray arrows and continued to shout loudly: "Holy Musketeers! Ten steps forward!"

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"First Holy Musket Division, ten steps forward, move!"

"Second Holy Musket Division, ten steps forward, move!"

"Third..."

According to the order, each division commander gave the order loudly.

The neat footsteps sounded, not only the sound of horses' hooves in front, but also the footsteps of the Holy Musketeers on the left and right wings.

"Cha! Cha! Cha!"

The mechanical and rigid footsteps slammed on people's hearts, making everyone's heart beat violently.

Smoke and dust appeared at the end of the road, and hundreds of Ibe knights followed behind the hussars.

They wore colorful wool tights and painted their armor in various colors.

The bright feathers and the long swords fitted with gems were completely different from the simple and pragmatic black armor of the Edict Knights.

The leading hussars held high the Grim Howl Third Brother battle flag. On the spearhead of the battle flag, the three beast-humanoid gods opened their mouths in an angry roar.

But no matter how you look at it, it looks like three heads pierced by a spear.

In the beast-humanoid empire, the Grim Howl battle flag is equivalent to the Eyre eagle flag and must not be abandoned.

"Holy Musketeers, prepare!"

The meaning of the preparation order is to check whether the gun barrel is loaded and start twisting the mountain copper spring.

The position was filled with the creaking sound of gears for a while, which made many beast-humanoids shudder and accelerate.

On the contrary, those Ibe knights from Golden River Township still held high the swallowtail flags or square flags printed with family crests and issued chaotic battle roars.

Their faces were red, and it seemed that they had taken Khan potions or Fire potions in advance, and were instinctively charging forward under the influence of stimulants.

The sound of gears turning on the position stopped, and the strange silence made many beast-humanoids familiar with the Holy Muskets anxious and fluent in Leia: "Don't fire, we haven't run away yet!"

"Go around to both sides, go around to both sides!" Coleman, who knew a few words of orcish, shouted loudly.

Glush had already shouted for the several people holding the Grim Howl head carving battle flag to turn, and the rest of the orc hussars followed suit and began to turn.

"Holy Musketeers, front kneeling and rear standing, aim!"

The first row of Holy Musketeers knelt down together, placing the gun barrel on the shortened Y-shaped support.

The second row of Holy Musketeers straightened their waists, holding the support with their left hands and placing their right index fingers next to the trigger instead of on the trigger.

"Spearmen, prepare!"

When the knights rushed past the branch tied with red cloth strips, Victor heavily waved the feathered spear in his hand.

"Fire!"

"Praise the Holy Wind!"